REACH FOR THE STARS
AT NEW YORK CITY'S
AMERICAN MUSEUM
OF NATURAL HISTORY
It may be the newest, biggest show on earth, but what makes it
spectacular is how it reaches for the stars.
The new $210 million Rose Center for Earth and Space at
New York City's American Museum of Natural history,
which opened earlier this year, houses a new, breath-taking
Hayden Planetarium. The old, art deco planetarium was
replaced by a new glass enclosed structure on the west end
of Central Park, which has been called "the most spectacular addition to the museum in its 130-year history."
The new planetarium is located inside an 87-foot reflective metal sphere perched on a tripod that creates the effect
of floating with a 95-foot high glass cube. The top half of the sphere contains the Space Theater. Unlike the typical planetarium, which displays the night sky as seen from earth on an overhead dome, the Space Theater show "flies"
the audience through it. As one science writer said after viewing the show, "Why look at the constellations when
you can fly among them."
And stars there are aplenty. The 3D presentation is based on actual astronomical data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency's Hipparcos, and the museum itself, all combining
to provide a data base map of more than two billion stars.
Jim Sweitzer, the astrophysicist who re-created the universe for the museum, said, "This is not your grandfather's planetarium. This is modern, contemporary science ... that uses the very latest technology to display our modern conception of space."
The planetarium was designed by renowned architect
James Steward Polshek and the key elements of lighting,
sound, staging and technical system for what has been
described as the most technologically advanced space
theater in existence, were created by Auerbach + Associates
of New York and San Francisco.
Heart of the Space Theater is a $3.5 million, one-of-a-kind
Zeiss Mark IX Star Projector, the most modern star and planet
projector ever built. Working in concert with the Zeiss Mark IX
are seven coordinated Prodas projectors and an SGI Onyx2
InfiniteReality2 workstation that generates the dome graphics.
The visuals are supported by a dynamic sound system designed
by Auerbach + Associates, under the direction of project manager
Paul Garrity and senior consultant Dan Mei, that broadcasts the
virtual reality show within the dome of the theater and in the
pre-show area.
The technologically advanced, 3D spatial sound system totally envelopes listeners in the excitement of the show, which transports them on a five-billion-light-year tour of the cosmos. The system provides multi-channel movement of sound effects and music, synchronized to moving, projected imaged.
The Space Theater's main matrix system, sending sound around the room, is the Level Control Systems SuperNova digital audio processing system controlled by LCS CueStation software. The dimensional surround sound system speaker network consists of a series of full-range speakers mounted in concentric rings above the perforated metal projection dome, A primary cluster is located at the top of the dome, eight channels in a mid-level ring and twelve channels at the dome's horizon.
One of the keys to the effectiveness of the sound system is the subwoofer loudspeaker system designed by Auberbach + Associates specifically to reproduce very low frequencies, and that's where BAG END entered the picture. Garrity said the goal was to drive the subwoofer system without having it too loud, and without having it bleed into the "Big Bang" laser show room below the theater. "We wanted the room of feel like 110 dB without actually generating anywhere near that level," he said. "We didn't want people to feel like they had been at a rock concert."
"We selected BAG END S18E-I subwoofers driven by a BAG END ELF-1 processor because the BAG END speakers offered excellent sound in a compact enclosures. Where some manufacturers offer subwoofers almost as an afterthought, BAG END provides a wide selection that we have used on many other projects as well," Garrity added.
Garrity said the final pieces of the puzzle are Aura Bass Shakers mounted in custom boxes attached to each seat in the theater. "They're a low frequency driver that vibrates the object they're attached to so when, for example, the Planet Jupiter flies by, there's a vibration in the seats - which just adds to the total experience."
The end result is that 20 times a day, seven days a week anyone can fly through billions of stars to the ends of the cosmos and back again - in 30 minutes.
